Thursday, December 29, 2011

Some countries, like Romania, are just ridden with misconceptions. In fact, once I told my colleagues and friends that I would be spending a week in this Eastern European country, I was hard pressed to find many positive comments.

More typically, I heard: "Why are you going there?" and "You better be careful of those gypsies." But, like so many of my travels, I was determined to do some myth busting. And this included looking for the Romania beyond the signature sights of fortified churches, painted monasteries, and anything to do with Dracula.

My article for the Huffington Post focuses in on Romania's hidden treasures.

1. Romania is a country with a predominat Latin culture (the only Latin country in Eastern Europe); Romania is not a Slavic country, such as Poland, Czeck, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine or Russia; There are also other ethnical groups living in Romania: Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Gypsies, etc.;

2. The Romanian language is similar to Italian, Spanish and French and totally different to the Slavic languages such as Polish, Czeck, Russian, Bulgarian, etc.;

3. The Romanian alphabet is the Latin one and not the Cyrillic one, as some Slavic countries have (Bulgaria, Russia, etc.);

4. In some countries Gypsies are also called Romani and that is why sometimes foreigners are making a confusion between the two totally different ethnical groups: Romanian versus Romani. Ups :)))

5. Foreigners also seem to make quite often the confusion between Bucharest (the Capital city of Romania) and Budapest (the Capital city of Hungary). :)))

6. ’’Dacia’’ is not just a car brand now owned by Renault, it is in fact the name of ancient Romania; Dacia was conquered by the Romans, so that’s where the Latin blood comes from.

7. After the 2nd World war, Romania was forced to change from a Monarchy into a Republic; however, nowadays the Romanian Royal Family is still respected and their informal role in our society is visible; King Michael of Romania got 90 years old in November 2011.